| main | ongoing | archive | private |
- Evie spread her arms wide to acknowledge the others in the room. “Welcome to our merry festival of freaks.”
- Sam stroked his chin. “You know, Miss Walker, it’s the darnedest thing, but I seem to be getting more irresistible every day. Golly, is that a side effect of my gift?” “I believe it’s a side effect of your ego,” Evie said, punctuating it with a generous eye roll.
- All those eyes on her, then all those eyes looking away out of a fear that they could catch the bad luck of her. It had taught her to be blunt, to lash out first. Better to frighten people a little and keep them at a distance than to suffer the eventual disappointment of them. Better to wound a little than to hurt a lot.
- So far, they’d had little luck in boosting his gifts. He tried not to let it bother him, passing it off with jokes—Can’t improve on perfection!—but it made him feel small and lacking, like when he was a kid in Chicago running from the bullies who tormented him with fists and taunts of Jew! When he realized he could make those bullies go blank in his presence, Sam had, for the first time in his life, experienced what it was to be powerful. That power had gotten him from Chicago to New York. It had helped him survive on the streets. He’d come to rely on it. In fact, he’d been downright cocky about it. But now, surrounded by everyone else, what he felt was competitive.
- Baby
- With a pained sigh, Evie left the comfort of her chair and came to sit beside Sam. She liked the way he smelled, like spicy aftershave and something else, something she could only describe as Sam.
- Open your eyes, girl, you belong with sam not jericho
- Oh, Mabel knew that she and Jericho weren’t a good match. Not really. But it stung that he hadn’t wanted her. Just once in her life, Mabel had wanted to come first. She’d wanted to be the chosen one instead of the chosen one’s reliable, unexciting best friend.
- “Do you know why people make up ghost stories?” There were many things Mabel could say to that, but she didn’t want Arthur to know about her work at the museum and think her foolish. She settled on, “Why?” “Because it’s easier than believing that ordinary people can be cruel and downright evil,” Arthur said.
- The story was rude, and it was clearly shocking the Blue Noses within earshot, which, with Evie, was the point.
- Jericho kicked the Persian rug back and lifted the trapdoor set into the floor of the collections room. Memphis peered into the dark hole. “It’s just as charming as it seems. Dark. Damp. Tubercular. Possibly haunted,” Sam said. “Come on! I’ll give ya the grand tour!”
- “Before the Devil breaks you, first he will make you love him.
- Well. I suppose you can always just …” Evie wiggled her fingers. “What, dry my nail varnish? Pretend I’m a bird? Play an imaginary piano?” Sam said. No! Do your don’t see me trick.” “How come yours is a ‘gift’ and mine is a ‘trick’? I’m insulted.” “Just make yourself useful, Sam.” Woody laughed. “Shame you two called off your engagement. You’re a perfect couple. Why don’t you former lovebirds wait here.
- “I can’t believe we actually got thrown out of an asylum,” Sam said. “I prefer ‘firmly escorted from the premises,’ ” Evie said
- Thinking about Evie stirred lust in Jericho. Since the serum, he’d been having more fantasies about her. He imagined taking her in his arms, slipping down her dress, his mouth moving across the curve of her neck and … He was in an embarrassing state now. He took several steadying breaths and decided he’d better go back to his room and take care of the situation.
- HE GOT A BONER!!!!
- “There are choices you make, things you do, that you don’t know are wrong when you do them. Only time gives you that perspective. Only history,” Will pleaded.
- Even Evie believed in something, that something being Evie a lot of the time.
- “Sam, I don’t think you should go anywhere by yourself.” His grin was wolfish. “Yeah? You offering to be my bodyguard, Lamb Chop? Gee, that’ll be kinda awkward on my dates, won’t it?”
- If you told people about yourself, what was to stop them from using those private hurts and joys against you sometime? Once you let people in, you were vulnerable.
- Evie’s eyes flashed. “Maybe you’re the one who’s miserable. You’re certainly conceited.” “At least I know how to make a girl laugh.” “And pull her hair out.” “You know, some girls like that hair-pulling,” Sam said. He was being deliberately provocative. Evie got up in his face. “Then remind me to shave my head bald.” “Wait! Just answer me this: Does he make you happy?” “If you must know, he makes me feel like I’m the only girl in the room.” “That’s not the same thing.”
- He shut his eyes and imagined Evie in his arms. And then his hand was reaching under the blanket as he fumbled with his pajama bottoms. It was Evie he thought about while he touched himself. Evie he wanted so much it was almost a physical ache. Evie he saw as the pressure built. Sam groaned and arched as the exquisite rush zoomed through him. He was sweating and flushed. “Jesus,” he said, panting. Jesus didn’t answer.
- 'jesus didn't answer' IM LAUGHING
- “Did we get them?” a policeman asked.
- THEY'RE GHOSTS
- If we were to cry for ourselves, there would be no land, only an ocean of salt.
- At his master’s commands, he could only nod, his tongue having been cut out. “We hold these truths to be self-evident …” The auction block loomed, a gateway to misery. The frightened, half-dead and chained, blinking in the light of a new world. “That all men are created equal …” A family scattered to the winds like seeds whose blooms were a resilience borne of grief. The chains. The iron masks. The teeth torn from mouths. The dogs set loose. “That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” The crack of the whip. “That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
- She liked hearing Sam’s list, and she didn’t want him to stop. “What else?” “Nah. I’ve told you already.” “Oh, please. Just one more.” Sam cocked his head. “Just one more, huh?” “Yeah. But make it a really good one.” “A good one.” “Yes.” “Okay.” Sam’s heart thudded against his ribs. He was dizzy. “Then how about this.” And with that, he leaned forward and kissed her.
- OH MY GODDDD
- “How do I know that’s real?” Evie said after she’d caught her breath. “Let me prove it.” Sam kissed her again, longer this time. And for the first time that night, Evie did feel loved. Sam wasn’t telling her to act more like a “good girl.” He didn’t want her to be anybody but who she was. Why had she tortured herself by not letting him in? “I’m still not convinced,” Evie said. Her head buzzed. “You … you might have to make your case more strongly.” Sam’s grin was wolfish, but inside he was balloons and champagne, a full goddamn birthday party. “Sure thing, Lamb Chop.” Evie put a finger to Sam’s lips and frowned. “I believe I have made my feelings about that name plain.” Sam licked up the length of her finger, drawing a gasp from her. “What can I say? I’m a naughty boy.” “How naughty?” “Would you like to find out?”
- Sam swallowed hard, took a deep breath. “Then here it is: All the times I say, ‘Don’t see me’? With you, I wish I had an opposite power: See me. See me, Evie. See all of me. There’s a fella who loves you right here. I’m not perfect. I’m a handful. But you know what? So are you. There. Not sugarcoating it.” “But … what if I love you and you go away?” Evie said, almost a whisper. “Sheba, I’m sitting across from you right now. Don’t you see that I’m not going anywhere?”
- OWW MY HEART
- Evie laced her fingers with Sam’s and rubbed her thumb gently across the delicate fretwork of veins at his wrist, the pulse of her thumb against the pulse beneath his skin, faintly felt but sure and constant. Later, she wouldn’t be able to say who had kissed whom first. It didn’t matter. It only mattered that they were kissing. They lay side by side on the peach satin quilt of her bed, bodies smashed together, Evie’s top leg wedged between Sam’s so that she could feel the heat of him pressed against her, making her dizzy from this new rush of desire. Sam pulled away suddenly. “Wha-what’s the matter?” Evie panted. She wanted him back. Wanted nothing but to be doing what they had been doing. Ached for it. He took her face in his hands and stared into her eyes, narrowing his own. “You’re not possessed by ghosts this time, are you?” Evie wrenched her head free from Sam’s palms. “Sam, honestly!” He grinned. “Just checking.” Evie kissed her way up the salty sweetness of his throat, to his ear, which she nibbled very softly, then whispered, “I am the Forgotten, forgotten no more.” “Holy moly!” Sam jumped and Evie fell back against the pillow in a fit of laughter. “Oh, Sam, your face!” “Not amusing, Sheba,” Sam chided, but he was laughing, too. Evie’s giggles subsided, and now she caught her breath. He was beautiful to her. She reached her hand toward him, and if she lived for a hundred years more, she would never forget his expression, as if he had been lost in a dark wood for a very long time and she had just opened the door to him, light spilling out to let him know he was home at last.
sep 23 2018 ∞
sep 23 2018 +
sep 23 2018 +